Georgia, Poti, Jan. 24 /Trend, N.Kirtskhalia/
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili on Monday attended the opening ceremony of the first section of the pipeline, built by SOCAR Georgia Gas (subsidiary of SOCAR - State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) in the Georgian city of Poti. Without gasification of Poti, it would be impossible to carry out any project, the Georgian President said.
The opening ceremony was attended by the President of SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev, CEO of Socar Energy Georgia Mahir Mammadov, Director of Socar Georgia Gas Anar Mammadov, Georgian Energy Minister Alexander Khetaguri and other Georgian officials.
During the ceremony, Mikhail Saakashvili expressed his gratitude to Azerbaijan for friendly support.
"Despite that the world prices are rising, thanks to an agreement with Azerbaijan, the gas tariff for Georgia is not raised," he said.
Saakashvili called the agreement concluded with Baku on gas supplies as the manifestation of friendship and support from the leadership of Azerbaijan. "This is a very big support for the Georgian people," he said.
The pipeline covers 9 residential corpuses and private sector objects. 707 potential subscribers will be supplied with gas via this pipeline.
In general, 150 km gas pipeline is designed to be constructed in Poti city. 17 000 subscribers will be supplied with gas as a result of this project. According to SOCAR's 3-year investment program, more than 500 km pipeline in Samergelo region, 1500 km pipeline in Georgia are planned to be constructed.
In 2009-2010, Socar Georgia Gas built 880 kilometers of gas pipelines and provided gas to 86,000 potential subscribers.
Socar Georgia Gas LLC is a subsidiary of Socar Energy Georgia, founded in August 2007 to participate in the natural gas market in Georgia.